Sunday, August 21, 2011

1. The printer. Any time I'm printing anything out, she has to sit right there and watch it. Today, I was scanning materials for my class, and she was so fascinated -- the noise, the moving light, turning the next page of the book -- she was spellbound. I decided to see what she would do if I ran the scanner without a document on it, and here's what she did:

Couldn't resist trying to catch that green light. I'd love to get a video of her but haven't gotten there yet.

2. The sound of birds -- any time she hears a bird outside, she makes a beeline for the window closest to it. Really, if she's in the living room and hears a bird toward the back of the house, she races back there and leaps to the windowsill. If it's outside the living room, she will run over anything that's there, including me, galloping over me like I'm just some other piece of furniture. It's fine now that she weighs about 5 lb., but when she hits 10 or 15, I think she will leave black and blue marks all over me.If we let her go outside, she would be a mighty hunter. Which is why we don't.

3. October. She adores our older cat. She follows him around, sleeps with him, and periodically stalks and ambushes him. He is very tolerant -- she other day when she was biting him, he was licking her.

4. Little mousies. Her favorite toys are these little 59 cent mousies that have a little rattle in them. Whatever she's doing, if she hears you rattling one, she comes a' running.

5. Anything that goes "boing-boing-boing." This little toy with streamers, a peacock feather, the strings on the blinds, a little ball on a rope -- she jumps so high, she could get a job with Cirque du Soleil (which, if you've never seen it, go).

6. Anything, really. She has such curiosity and joie de vivre, she's a constant delight (and a constant sweet aggravation, because she is always into something . . . ). Here she is, exploring . . . calamine lotion. And, she has become a Scotch drinker, after a fashion -- if my Loved One leaves an empty glass with melted ice and a teeny bit of Scotch in it, she's all over it. She just loves it.

So, there it is for today. She fills my life with joy, this little creature, and makes times like right now -- when I am up to my ears with work, school starts Tuesday, I'm a bit of a basket case -- bearable. Again, not a cat person, but boy am I a this cat person.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Buttercup is thriving -- here she is playing with one of her favorite toys:

See the yellow ball by her paw? She bats it one way and watches it go around (through an opening on the side), then she bats it the other way and watches it go around. Must be kind of like meditation. :)

We've been having some success with the clicker training -- kind of a hiatus while we were on vacation, but now we're starting again. She has so far learned that to get a treat, she touches her nose to the end of a chopstick, and when she does it, we click the clicker. She's really good at it. Next step: to get her to stand on something like a placemat -- basically, "stay." It's interesting how she really gets it. Who knew that cats were trainable?

We've started giving her the run of the house at night -- when she first came to us, she was so tiny that we were afraid to let her run around at night, so we kept her in the (pretty big) crate we've used when fostering small dogs. She seems to be fine now, except for the part where she comes in to snuggle up with me at 5 or 6 AM. She lies close to my head (or on it, sometimes), she purrs like a machine (very loud in your ear), and worst of all . . . she periodically farts. Seriously. But still, it's pretty sweet. Except for the part where I'm awakened at 5 AM . . . . But still, I love her.

Here are a couple more pictures from the vacation:

It's a little dark, but I like the tree silhouetted against the sunset. I like the way this one came out, too -- the light was nice.

These were processed with Nik Software, which I'll talk more about another day.

Friday, August 12, 2011

I love my family. We hardly ever get together, but when we do, we have a wonderful time. Two years ago, my brother, sister and I met in Phoenix for my cousin's 50th wedding anniversary (way to go, Marianne and Jack); my brother's girlfriend (now wife) came, but no other spouses or kids. Before that, I took my son and daughter to Minnesota to stay with my sister, but my brother and my Loved One weren't there. This time. my only niece was getting married, and we decided to get all siblings, spouses, and my kids together (of course we saw niece and nephew). So only my brother's kids weren't there.

I was so excited to be at my niece's wedding. She's a lovely person -- a pistol, actually -- full of fun and kind and smart and all of the things you'd like a kid to be. Her new husband is a wonderful man, sort of quiet until you get to know him, but so kind and patient and hard-working. I sent them the picture above, printed on canvas, as a wedding present, and it came out very nicely. which made me so happy.

The wedding was lovely, The color scheme -- white, red and black -- was terrific, and Aubree's dress was gorgeous -- white with dark red embroidery around the train, bodice, and veil. It was so pretty. And the wedding had nice personal touches, readings and especially the music, which was non-traditional, lots of old love songs from the 60's and 70's. The best moment came when they were pronounced man and wife, and from the speakers came "Ooga shaka, ooga, ooga, ooga shaka, ooga, ooga" -- B.J. Thomas singing "Hooked on a feeling." Suddenly any solemnity was gone, and Aubree gave a whoop and they danced down the aisle to applause from everyone. The reception was great -- good food, good times -- all in all, a wonderful day.

The next day, we all -- bride and groom, sister and her husband, brother and his wife, and me and my Loved One with our two kids -- headed north to Mille Lacs Lake, a big beautiful lake in northern Minnesota for the next three days. The house we had rented was gorgeous, with a private dock and beach, and we settled in for a good time (the newlyweds stayed a short distance away, in a place of their own). We played a game where you throw beanbags into a hole cut in wood (I can't tell you the name of it), had a real tournament, which my brother and my daughter won. One night we sat outside until midnight, laughing and laughing (I never laugh so much as with my brother and sister). We went to a casino for prime rib, and a local restaurant for walleye pike.

Of course, we took lots of pictures. The sunsets were terrific -- I hadn't brought a telephoto lens, just my 50mm, so I knew the sunset was going to look pretty teeny, far away across the lake. I liked this one I took of my son, taking his own picture.

I like this one too -- so many beautiful clouds. We really had a wonderful time, no squabbles or disagreements, just lots of laughter and silliness and fun. We're all really glad we went.

Who's Talking to You?

Elise Ann Wormuth

I am a retired college English professor who has reinvented herself as a fine art photographer, watercolor painter, and genealogist (among other things). I've spent my working life teaching other people to write, and now I will take some time to get back to writing myself.